At the 2009 Video Game Awards (VGA), Capcom's Street Fighter 4 came away with Fighing Game of the Year Award. Other nominees for the award were BlazBlue: Calamity Trigger, Soul Calibur: Broken Destiny and Tekken 6.

Congratulations to Capcom and Street Fighter 4

This is my own personal opinion, but this is a well-deserved win. Whatever you personally think of Street Fighter 4 as a game, you cannot deny the impact this game has had. The fighting game genre had declined tremendously over the years prior to this game's release. Capcom took a risk as a company and spent the resources to put out a sequel which did what most fighting games prior to this failed to do: draw the mainstream gamer back into the genre. Not only that, but sales for the game showed companies that fighting games do not have to be a financial risk if done properly.

Fighting game fans owe this game a debt of gratitude, and both Capcom and Street Fighter 4 deserve this award. Congratulations to Capcom, but this year fighting game fans have won as well.

The Tekken 6 North American Championship "King of Ironfist" finals will be streamed live tonight. You can view the stream at this very site. Check out UFRAG.TV's Twitter for up to date info on the stream and the event! Also check out the thread at Tekken Zaibatsu for info on the event itself, who is playing in the finals, and so forth.

The latest episode of the Dogface Show is here, with part 2 of the Justin Wong interview. In this episode they talk about Marvel vs Capcom 2 rivalries, Justin's thoughts on Ryu, some talk about Asian culture, and more!

All things big start small, and with the iPW Mailbag, that is precisely what I'd like to be able to do. Some of you may have seen the first post I made regarding this. To reiterate my goal of creating a weekly mailbag, I'd like to be able to create more exposure for the fighting game scene. However, I don't want to be limited to exclusively local or national exposure. This community is very diverse on an international scale, and I'd like to encourage some of our regular readers who are also from Europe, Japan, and other foreign countries to participate in this mailbag by e-mailing me: crackfiend@iplaywinner.com. With that said, here is the first iPW Mailbag!

Once again, Azrael from Shoryuken has come through with a translation of the latest post on the Japanese official Super Street Fighter 4 "Nakki" Blog. This one is pretty epic in size, so grab a drink and a snack, nestle into your seat, and prepare for a huge helping of Street Fighter.

Hello everyone.The festive Christmas atmosphere is starting to pick up around town. Personally, a lot of games and moves that I've been looking forward to are coming out in succession... But no matter how cute the little Chocobo is, now we gotta focus on Super SFIV! The development staff has been pouring their blood and sweat into the project, so what once seemed like a distant goal is now within our sights! We'll give it our all for the final push!

Well then! Today we're bringing back the "Q&A Series"! If we count from SFIV, this would be the 9th entry.

This series is like using up 3 bars of super meter. The choice of questions and opinions to be addressed is left up to me - but I'll try to answer as many questions as I can the best that I can! Let's get to it!

One of my biggest fears following the initial batch of SSIV screen shots was that Capcom was neglecting to update some of the purely aesthetic aspects of Street Fighter IV. This new batch of shots has finally put my fears to rest. These shots, along with the previously revealed construction site and India stages look fantastic.

The first video of BlazBlue on PSP has surfaced and it looks like BlazBlue fans are in for a real treat. Not only do the visuals look stunning, it also appears you will be able to play with 4 players. I obviously cant read Japanese, but it looks like you can have two people playing and the other two watching in a rotating lobby system! Very cool, check it out.

A mysterious image has surfaced which looks to be a teaser image for Super Street Fighter 4. The image was first spotted on Shoryuken, and is said to have come from the Japanese Jamzi blog. The image shown above has been stretched to maximize picking out detail.

As you can see, Juri is on the left clearly. However, the character on the right is mostly cleverly concealed by the Blanka toy. Rumors have spoken of a new character for Super Street Fighter 4 named Hakan. What do you guys think it is? It's fun to speculate.

The Tekken 6 National Tournament Finals were announced not too long ago, but most people were wondering: who is actually playing in this thing? I've heard everything from it was all online players to that they were bringing in special guests to... well.. who cares what I heard! Here is the official list of players via SDTEKKEN thanks to MarkMan!

Saqs is probably the best Rose player in North America right now. You can see videos of his exploits at his YouTube channel located here. In this interview we get into his past experience as a player, his thoughts on his great performance at Evo 2009, on Rose as she stands now as a character and what he'd like to see changed in the future, on Super Street Fighter 4, and more!

Can you tell us a bit about your fighting game experience? When did you start playing and what kinds of fighters do you play?

Saqs: My name is Ric Collins. I've been playing Street Fighter since the original SF II in the arcades along with plenty of other fighters over the years. Just about anyone into Street Fighter in the MD/VA scene knows me or may have heard of me as I was pretty heavy into it all the way up through CvS2. I play SF for the competition but also for the fun of it. A lot of the newer people to the scene probably won't know me as I went into hiatus in terms of playing completive SF in 2002 (real life took over). The shutting down of the best arcade in the area (GameTime in Alexandria VA) drove the nail in further and so I stopped playing completely for a good while only playing fighters online casually up until SF4 hit. I've played just about every fighter out there at some point and time over the years. Samurai Shodown, King of Fighters, DOA, Tekken, Soul Calibur, etc. Though now I feel im too old to handle more than one game at a time so I’m sticking strictly to SF4 these days :).

X-Play had a short preview of the upcoming Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars for the Wii. It features Seth Killian. It's just a short overview so there is no new information. We've posted it to keep reminding you that this game is coming!

Before Mad Catz unleashed their line of Tournament Edition Fight Sticks in February 2009, no one ever thought that a consumer arcade stick could cause mass retail hysteria. Discussions on how to properly modify the equipment and artwork of your stick were regulated to only the most hardcore of fighting enthusiast message boards and most US gamers probably thought “Sanwa” was a specialty brand of Top Ramen. The Tournament Edition Fight Stick changed the face of the game completely and whether its the local tournament crowd of anywhere, USA, or beasts from another land such as Daigo Umehara, chances are good that if you’re playing a fighting game on a modern system, you’re doing so on a Mad Catz.

The latest Japanese official Tatsunoko vs Capcom: Ultimate All-Stars blog post not only revealed two new stages, but it also showcased three short but exciting new gameplay vids. Each is 20 seconds or less but what is shown is really cool.

The Japanese official Tatsunoko vs Capcom blog has been updated, and it has revealed two new stages!

The first stage is a starship hangar from Tekkaman Blade. As the match goes on, a firefight breaks out in the background.

The second new stage is the Mall from the town of Willamette from Dead Rising. As the match goes on it turns from day to night. Also, the hordes of zombies in the background get glowing eyes in the dark.

The official Super Street Fighter 4 blog was updated today with new images and information on Cody. Thanks to Oichi from VersusCity.net for a couple quick translations. He mentions that the blog says Cody will be able to throw his knife, "the dust attack after recovery", and will also receive a new TAP style attack which I assume will be his way of dealing with fireballs.

Seth "S-Kill" Killian has graced iPlayWinner with an exclusive interview. Most of the questions revolve around the Street Figher community, however, Seth Killian did hint about top contenders for Super Street Fighter 4. Please check it out at iPlayWinner's YouTube channel:

Seth Killian was not the only interviewee whom our fans requested. Stay tuned for more interviews this coming week!

Also, a huge thank you to everyone (you, too, Farid) who helped out with the iPW Interviews: Requests and Updates thread and sent in their questions. Check for updates on iPlayWinner-covered events, and voice your requests on players you want interviewed!

Evo 2010 has been announced. This time it will be held at the Caesar's Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas! Here's the announcement as posted on Evo's website:

We are proud to announce that the event everyone has been raving about is back in action! The Evolution 2010 Main Event will be held on July 9-11, 2010 at the fabulous Caesar’s Palace Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The Evolution Championship Series represents the largest and longest-running fighting game tournaments in the world. Evo events bring together the best of the best from around the world in a dazzling exhibition of skill and fun, as players and fans gather to honor the competitive spirit in an open format and determine a champion.

Caesars Palace is one of the world’s best known resort casinos, celebrating the glory that was the Greece and the grandeur that was Rome, in an 85-acre destination location that sets the standard for excitement and luxury. Reigning at the heard of the Las Vegas Strip, Caesars Palace ranks among the world’s top luxury resorts known for the originality and beauty.

Don’t delay! Mark it on the calendar, and inform everyone you know, Evolution 2010 is back and badder than ever!